5thtonbench

It is indeed a tight fit! But it looks good, and I like the fact that Im not going to have to take the battery out of the car next winter! I had plans of using the front screw terminals for the amp installation but thats out now that I have seen the fitment with my own eyes. I've only been in DC for a little over 2 years, but I see you're local. Any pcar groups down here?

The only thing I can say is that if your on the fence, go for it! Xenon's make such a difference to me that its hard to drive a car without them now. However, I guess you could say thats a side effect: you get into a regular halogen car afterwards and you may wonder if the headlights are even on ;) The prices I've seen are 1500 a set. Might want to check if the bulbs are included too, or that will be another 400 approx if I remember correctly.

When my battery went dead for months (after cracking) I couldnt get into my hoods either. My jump start pack has a power-up option with a cigarette lighter plug. You dont jump it from there, just supply power. I plugged it in to the plug, and the alarm did fire but then I used the key fob in the door, then by pressing the remote button. It shut the alarm off, then I re-unarmed it and the hood releases were again pull-able. My last resort was the cable, but if you have access to one of those jump-packs with a cigarette power outlet, try that. I got mine at costco for 40 bucks and it saved me from digging for the cable!

Additionally, I would assume (since I've seen it on other cars) you can get an aftermarket xenon kit for your low beams, and stick with halogen high beams with the non-lightronic headlight baskets. In fact this is how my old Acura was set up, only from the factory with factory xenon's. Xenon lights differ from halogen in the gas they use, type of light they emit, and for DIY'ers, the fact that they require a seperate ballast to "fire" the bulbs, or in other words turn them on. Litronic lights yes are the xenon factory option, however it also implies you are using the litronic headlight basket, which uses a projector lens, xenon headlight and a motorized unit to use the same light source as your low and high beams. This is more common now in high end cars, mostly because I would assume its more practical (somehow) than two pairs of xenon bulbs. When I turn on my high beams, my headlights simply point themselves higher via a motor in the headlight basket. I'm not sure if headlamp washers come standard with those, but I have headlamp washers built into my lightronic headlights as well. Edit: Headlamp washers are apparently still an option, but can be had. I would assume you need a lot more than just the "washer" option, such as a resevoir etc. Here's the link mentioned for suncoast, but it can be had in a great many places. http://e-partssales.com/Merchant2/merchant...y_Code=POTEBXEX

Well, the boxster sat long enough... all winter actually, which lead to the battery dying and cracking all over the battery tray. Man it was a mess. To make matters worse, I was in a pretty bad accident months back and handicap enough that I wasnt walking for a while. Not a whole lot of opportunity to get to the porsche. However, I've finally got my new battery in, and since I'm re-doing the stereo I opted for the Optima Yellowtop for that extra juice it's provided me in previous cars. It works well for the porsche because the more common models still have adequate cranking amps for the boxster (I couldnt put one in my truck because there just wasnt enough juice there) . It will also help out come winter because I really dont drive the car from november - march. I have to say the battery fits real nice in there, although I really planned for the tolerances and it did just barely fit. The red top I had originally planned for was smaller than this yellow top. It also looks great sitting in there, although its obviously covered most of time time. Why is this any different than the red top? Because the red top has a lip that goes all around the battery. The yellow top only has a lip front and rear (along the long-edges of the battery). This means you have to mount it from front and rear to get it to stay (without a strap at least) and the best way to do this is with a slight modification of the OEM tray and the included optimum battery mounts. What I did is remove the porsche battery tray, and fit the yellow top under the lip thats in the long rear horizontal part of the tray. I could have used the optimum tray adapter but it was just too big and bulky. The factor tray lip holds the battery real nicely under there without having to use the fattening-adapter that optima provides with the battery. I then took the wedge (also included with the battery) and lined it up with the center cell on the battery. I cut a wedge out of the edge of the battery tray (the rounded portion in the front, dead center) and flattened the slag towards the inside of the tray. This gave me extra reinforcement to mount a bolt to. Next I drilled through the folded slag and the bottom of the tray to accomodate a 2" long 5/16" bolt. This allowed me to bolt down the front of the battery while the lip in the tray held down the rear. I had already put in a 12" positive battery lead before replacing the tray, but you have enough room to replace this if you do it after the fact. You will have to replace it, but not the length I've read elsewhere (30"). A 12-15" positive lead is fine. I couldnt find a 1g Red, so I settled for a "clear" just so there was some distinguishable characteristics. It doesnt matter, obviously through the fact that both OEM cables are black. Now for the battery tray: The best way to get a battery into the porsche is to go ahead and step into the trunk so you arent fighting a leverage deficiency! You will find that there is not enough room to tighten a nut on the battery if you put the tray in first. You can, however, mount the battery and drop it in with the tray, while still having access to all 4 tray bolts that attach the tray to the car. This is how I got the battery in, knowing I could just remove the bolts later and pull the assembly if I had to. Others have done it without this obstacle, but they built a variety of mounts to accomodate this and they didnt look anywhere as clean as this install with the optimum parts. Most were also using red-tops, which have a lip around the entire battery. As mentioned, Yellow top has no lip on the sides, so you have to mount it front and back. The good news is, optimium has an easy-on/off handle that slides on and off the battery, so if you dont toss that you can get the battery out as needed later! And even then, you are just 4 bolts away from removing the battery. It's a little trick manuevering the battery tray in while attached to the battery. The wedge adds about 1/4" to the thickness of the otherwise exact-fitting tray, so the best thing to do is angle the battery towards you and dip the wedge under the compartment lip. Then lower the rear battery into the compartment. You have some hoses there that might have their clamps in the way depending on how you orientate them. I rotated the clamps so nothing was protruding towards the battery, and problem solved. Tighten down your 4 bolts, step back and you'll notice that the battery is still centered nicely (if you lined it up with the center of the round front of the tray). So, not counting the battery, the additional cost to get this in was 7.95 + tax for the battery cable. The battery included all the mounts, and I had the bolts. I put a lock washer on there to be safe as well, which I highly recommend any time you are relying on a lip and tightening from only one side. It looks real clean, and provides plenty of advantages over the old battery. I couldnt tell you if it is heavier than the OEM batteries or not, but I can say that this install keeps the battery centered like the original. It takes a little extra creativity since its less universal than the red-tops, but it goes in just as nicely as the OEM! Total project time: 30 min. I filed the edges of my cuts etc though and took my time, so Im sure it could be done faster! When I finally started the car, it made all sorts of noises. I decided to just let it run for a while. Weird things happened, like the one-touch windows not working right away but later kicking in, and the brakes made a lot of noises for a while. I suppose the car is just chastizing me as it settles in. I'm going to take her out for a spin right now, since I've been dying to ever since I was bedridden! So nice that its warm out again... happy riding ;-)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Porsche-996...sspagenameZWDVW if your feeling lucky :unsure:

After Toolpants pointed out that the 11" rim is designed for a widebody car, I did some research into exactly what that means. In the end, because I dont want a 295 tire anyway, I'm going to go with the 10" rear which can afford me a 275 or 285 rear anyway, without the extra weight and worry about the rim size. Thanks for the Info, and I'll catch you all back soon.

Hi Everyone... Since there is no general forum here, i'll introduce myself on my post here: I have a 2000 boxster S, love the car and it has been a lot of fun. I only use her during the summer here in DC. I've lurked renntech for a while, signed up recently and here I am. I've been toying with the idea of buying a new car, porsche or otherwise to replace my S. I drove around and around in the new 997 and used 996's which i liked better because they felt familiar. However, I still cant get past my love of my boxster, which is the reason i purchased it over the 996 in the first place back in 2000. Something about it just works for me! So with that, I'm looking to refresh my love for the car, however, aside from a ton of factory options, the car is standard and I'd like to put some effort into making the car mine again. Among some of the things planned, I need new tires soon and have been thinking its time to leave the factory 17's. With that, I've located a set of Factory Turbo's that I can pull off a 996 Turbo. The wheels are 8jx18 et50, and 11jx18 et45 respectively, bolt pattern 5x130. Tires mounted are 225/40 and 295/30. Obviously, I am writing because Im a bit concerned about the size. I have a strong feeling these guys are going to stick out. Aside from asking "will they fit", what am I facing here? From what I understand the magic number is 45, which means only a small offset in the front. But am I going to be rubbing left and right? Will my car look like it belongs in a monster truck rally, and will my suspension play nice with all this new weight? I'd love the size, especially to put some grip in place for my engine plans. However, my car has always been very clean, and I'm very leary of taking next steps with any of this, risking that look i've been riding for years. Thanks in advance, and I'm looking forward to getting to know all of you. -5thton